Cho'Gath/Strategy
Champion Spotlight Recommended Items Tips ;Playing As * Try to line up your attacks with so that they kill minions and harass enemy champions at the same time. * If you're having difficulty ing upon champions, try eating minions until you're larger. * Using on creeps in combination with is a good way to gain Health and Mana. ;Playing Against * Purchasing a few HP items decreases the chances of Cho'Gath killing you quickly. * Focus on preventing Cho'Gath from . * has a smoke cloud indicating the area it will strike. Try to watch out for it to prevent Cho'Gath from being able to combo his abilities. Tricks ;Ability Usage *While has a longer range, is less avoidable and can stop opponents from using movement abilities to dodge , especially against melee top lane champions with spammable movement abilities like (who is also vulnerable to the silence due to being combo-reliant). *Both and can interrupt channeled abilities; with practice and good prediction, they can even interrupt deadly suppression ultimates ( , ) being used on you by casting them right before they use those abilities, because and have a brief cast time that can only be stopped by death. *Generally is maxed first to increase the silence duration, however this also makes it very mana-heavy. Against toplaners like , who is immobile, less reliant on abilities with innate sustain, maxing (which does not increase its mana cost; at max rank it does 5 base damage per mana compared to 2.5) can be more useful to force him out of lane. *While grants a permanent health gain when it kills a champion and a true damage tank-buster, in a team fight it may be more useful to use it first, as it is only targeted ability. Prime targets are slippery melee assassins such as , or . The heavy damage would make them reconsider sticking around too much in the thick of battle, and their low health state can often attract your teammates' attention to quickly eliminate the threat. Also, as it is a true damage nuke, it becomes stronger if the enemy team has many magic resistance stacking ( ) or powerful damage-reducing ( , ) champions that you need to upon frequently. * is very useful against jungle monsters even if you are not jungling, as even at level 6 it can deal a massive 1000+ true damage in one hit, allowing you to possibly quickly take solo for laning. It should also be used on the as it gives a non-minion stack. Note that while it does more damage than (390-1000 damage) especially at lower levels, it has a cast time while Smite is instant. ;Rune Usage * can be played as a tank, a mage, or anything in between. *For , helps him with his mana problems. It is another reason to use before , due to its higher mana cost (which is negated by the rune). * gives him a decent burst of movement speed but it may not be too reliable to hit all his basic abilities in the short window, especially given that both and have essentially melee range, and he has the most difficulty getting into melee range in the first place. * is good with as its knock up prevents his opponent from avoiding it. *For , synergizes with his health gain from . * allows to destroy towers extremely quickly, especially once sufficient health has been stacked. * helps him with his troubles with poke while helps you scale better when building armor (which is a must for Tank Cho'Gath). *If you feel confident you can also go with : can help him burst out enemies way easier in all stages of the game, especially for Ap builds and almost always guarantees a succesful roam and gives a lot less time to react than Teleport. **From this same Path the rune and increase damage exponencially with whatever little Ap and Cooldown Reduction you may build. *Cho'Gath can also see benefits from and but since the attack speed from is usually useless it's potential is limited. **An interesting combo is to go with along with because if you have 30% Cooldown Reduction, you ult somebody right at the beginning of a teamfight (and kill it if it's squishy enough) and help killing other 3 you can ult the last one if at least 28 seconds have passed (25 with 40% CDR). Which is an insane amount of damage no matter your build. *An unusual, but useful rune for is . Well-aimed combos of and allow for easy gapclosing to apply the autoattack slow, allowing for improved ganks and chasing, especially when jungling. Additionally, benefits greatly from many runes in the tree. also benefits 's engage potential, creating multiple slowing zones and allowing your team to follow up. **In the first row, Cho'gath can gain extra movespeed from , or use to pad his early game and transform it into a in an AP build, or in a tank build. **In the second row, allows him to CS easier in harder lane matchups and improves his splitpushing power. can allow him to reach scaling items like sooner, and affords him improved sustain in both jungle and lane, allowing him to be active on the map for extended periods of time. **In the third row, Cho'gath benefits greatly from extra cooldown reduction from , improved gapclosing from , and sustain from . ;Item Usage * is often regarded as core item as it gives him a healthy amount of AP, health and mana (since he is quite mana hungry even with his passive). An early can mitigate his mana problems. If going for a pure tank build, can grant similar mana sustain and increased tankiness at the cost of damage. *He can use all the stats on well and its active gives him some mobility that he desperately lacks. **For a tankier build, try . *Both and doubles the damage from . With the doubled % max health burn, increasing his sustained damage, % max health damage, and large chunk of true damage, can be a deadly tank shredder. Note that does NOT amplify his ultimate damage. *When going for a tank build, is an amazing teamfighting item. Because it grants only resistance stats, it is extremely efficient with the health stacking from . Additionally, the bonus health granted by it's active scales 's true damage. With enough health, and the buffed active, a single can potentially instantly kill a champion from full health, making a deadly threat and forcing the enemy team to focus him or lose a carry. * is the champion that can build the soonest since his Ult can give him quickly enough health to get the passive going. *If you are ahead and want to build a single Tank Item, will give you all the resistances you need, a nice amount of Movement Speed near Turrets and an Active that will splitpush for you. *For AP builds can be a suitable replacement for if you can't reach enemies. *If you are not sure if an AP build is appropriate for the game, going and secondary while building , , and is a nice balance between ability power and tankiness. *Alternatively, can abuse his ability to stack health, his autoattack reset with and his high base AD by going for an AD bruiser build. Typically, this build would take items like to take advantage of his high base AD, to improve his sustained area of effect damage in teamfights along with another autoattack reset, and possibly even , as it's shield scales off of his bonus health. When abusing such a build, going jungle and building can be a great buy, as it amplifies the health gain from all your items and ultimate stacks. The build would generally finish by building tank items that favor magic resistance or armor - however, note that is not recommended for this kind of build, as the active reduces his sustained autoattack damage. Builds like this can put out a surprising amount of burst, especially on squishies, provided can close the distance. ;Countering * is one of the few, if not the only champion, commonly regarded as a tank, to entirely lack any sort of mobility, and his large size makes it extra difficult for him to dodge skillshots. Poke champions like or can give him a hard time. As he lacks an escape, ganking him often especially pre-6 can leave him crippled. *As he generally stacks a lot of health, abilities that deal a percentage of health is very effective against him, such as (and her also helps evading ). *Both and have noticeable cast times with no travel time. If you cannot outrange him, agile champions such as or can close the gap and engage him at close range. ** in particular is a conical ability cast from the edge of his hitbox, which means it is very difficult or even impossible for him to hit you with it if you are right on top of him. * , while a targeted ability, also has a noticeable cast time; if loses sight of you during the animation (e.g. if you walk into brush that he has no sight of), it will not damage you. * has two abilities that interrupt channels in an area. Avoid using champions who are reliant on channels. Clustering in general is a terrible idea; if hits multiple champions, and he would likely follow up with a nearly unavoidable , it would put your team in a huge disadvantage. *Do not underestimate the reach of , as it does not have a travel time (i.e. it is just as fast at max range). **It has a lengthy warning period - he first stomps the ground, then a warning zone appears briefly before the spikes appear. However, if you do not have vision of him, you cannot see the first part and thus the time you can react to it is much more limited. Be wary of him ambushing you from brush, or even from an adjacent jungle path. ru:Cho'Gath/Strategy Category:Champion strategies Category:Cho'Gath